Most land decisions start with a question that has nothing to do with any particular parcel: where should I be buying at all? ParcelView answers that with Market Research — a nationwide inventory map covering more than 3,100 counties. It shows where listing inventory is piling up and where it is clearing, so you can choose your next market from data instead of instinct, then move straight into parcel search once you have a shortlist.
Step 1 — Open Market Research
From the left rail of your ParcelView workspace, open Market Research under Tools. The map loads across the full screen with a filter bar along the top and a ranked panel anchored to the right. Nothing needs setting up first — the data is already loaded for every state.
Step 2 — Read the colors before you touch anything
Each county is shaded by how its listing inventory has changed compared with the listing count three months ago. The scale runs in five bands from green through yellow and orange to red. Green means listing inventory in that county is declining, which may indicate stronger market absorption. Red means inventory is climbing. Counties shaded grey have no data.
That one distinction — falling versus rising — is the whole point of the map. A green county may indicate a market where available inventory is being absorbed more quickly
Step 3 — Narrow to a state
Use the first dropdown in the top bar. Every entry carries its own listing count in parentheses, so you can see how big a state is before you commit any time to it. Selecting a state zooms the map to it and re-scopes the rest of the page around it.
Step 4 — Drill into a county
The county dropdown stays disabled until a state is chosen, then fills with that state’s counties — again with a count beside each name. Pick one and the map focuses on it. This can be a useful way to build a shortlist: compare several counties in the same state, focusing on those with favorable trends and enough inventory to evaluate. Using both views can provide a more complete picture, since trend and volume answer different questions. The bar also has a search box for jumping straight to a city by name.
Step 5 — Switch between counties, cities, or both
The View control decides what gets plotted. Counties gives you the broad shading. Cities drops a circle on each city, sized by how many listings sit there — a small town carrying heavy inventory looks very different from a large city carrying almost none. Both overlays them. At national zoom the circles group together so the map stays readable; zoom into a region and they separate into individual cities.
Step 6 — Open a city for the detail
Hover a city circle for a quick tooltip, or click it for the full card: total listings, the trend across the stored window, how many listings were added in the past week, and where that city ranks inside its state. The weekly line always shows, even when the answer is zero — so a quiet week reads as a quiet week rather than as missing data.
Step 7 — Work the ranked panel
The panel on the right has two tabs: Top Counties and Top Cities. Scanning that list is often faster than scanning the map. The map tells you the shape of a region; the list tells you the order. Find the ranking in the panel, then look at where those places sit on the map.
Step 8 — Set the view up the way you work
Alongside View, the top bar carries a Theme control for light or dark and a map style control. There is also a volume mode, which shades by total listing count instead of by change. Change answers “is this market moving?” Volume answers “is there enough here to be worth my time?” Using both views can provide a more complete picture, since trend and volume answer different questions.
Step 9 — Take the shortlist into the rest of ParcelView
Market Research narrows the country down to a handful of counties. Parcel search takes it from there: search any parcel in those counties by address, APN, owner or coordinates, then review available property data and site considerations, such as flood zones, wetlands, soils, and other relevant land information before you commit a dollar. Anything worth pursuing goes into your properties with one click.
Three habits that make it more useful
- Read trend and volume together. A green county with very few listings may provide limited market insight, while stronger inventory volume can give the trend more context.
- Compare inside a state before you compare across states. States differ enough in size, price and pace that a national ranking flattens the detail you actually need.
- Come back weekly. The value is not in one snapshot — it is in watching a county’s color shift over several visits.
Why this beats keeping it in a spreadsheet
The manual version of this is pulling county listing counts by hand, dropping them into a sheet, and remembering to repeat it every week. Manual tracking may be manageable for a small number of counties, but it becomes increasingly time-consuming as the number of markets grows. ParcelView keeps the history for you, displays county-level market data on a consistent visual scale, and puts the answer a click away from the parcel search where you will act on it. The research and the deal live in the same workspace, which is why the shortlist you build on Monday is still in front of you on Thursday.
The takeaway
Market Research is not a report you read once. It is the screen you open before you spend acquisition money, to better understand whether listing inventory in the county is trending downward or building up. Filter to your state, identify counties with favorable trends and meaningful listing volume and let the parcel work follow the market.
